-tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering tipsyGnolastic [TG] at 22:16 -

TT: Hi. Orientation finished.

TT: I saw your messages.

TT: When are you planning to come by? Have you made contact with any wizard government yet?

TG: ROSE

TT: Okay, you're online.

TG: youll never guess where i am rigt now

TT: So I won't. Tell me.

TG: ON A PLANE

TG: with JANE CROCKER

TT: John's grandmother?

TG: YEAH

TG: SHE'S THE COOLEST

TT: Nice.

TT: Wait, not nice. You're coming *now*?

TG: more like JUST TOUCHED DOWN IN EDINBURGH

TG: i think. right? you said the school was in scotland

TT: It is, but I got there from London, on a train. For all I know it might be magically invisible if you don't come by it.

TG: wait

TG: johns' grandma says that we're actually in heathrow airport

TG: she "wanted to meet the queen" or whatever

TG: also something about airspace violations

TG: WHATEVER point is where is this train atttttttt

TT: Um.

TT: I ran through a solid brick wall to get to it.

TT: And I think it's only for students.

TG: bricks will not stop me

TT: Holy shit.

TT: Okay, then. This might work and it might not, but we can't know unless we try. You're at Heathrow?

TG: for now :o customs cannot hold me forever

TG: I WILL BE FREE

TT: Tomorrow, get to King's Cross station and message me.

TT: For now, try not to become too jet-lagged.

TG: i was under the impression that *i* was the mom here :V

TT: Go to bed, Roxy.

-tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering tipsyGnolastic [TG] at 22:36 -

Rose put her phone back in her pocket and entered the dorm. Two girls were already inside, unpacking their belongings. "Oh," said one, once she looked up. "Hello. I'm Daphne Greengrass."

"Rose Potter," said Rose.

"I know," she said.

"I'm beginning to wonder if there's going to be a need to introduce myself at all," said Rose. "For whatever reason, circumstances out of my control seem to have done the introductions for me."

"We were also there at the Sorting," said the other girl.

"That's true," said Rose, "but it does make me feel like an ass for not knowing your name."

"Tracey Davis," she said. "Muggleborn Slytherin, don't make a big deal about it."

"I had no intention of doing so until you said anything about it," said Rose. "Is it supposed to be a big deal?"

"A Weasley and a Potter in Slytherin are supposed to be big deals," said a voice behind Rose. "But you can't help yourself from shattering expectations, can you?"

Rose turned around. Behind her were two more girls, dressed already in Slytherin green. The one who had spoken was smiling smugly, and the other was lingering just behind.

"How long were you standing there planning that?" asked Rose.

"I wasn't-"

"She ran up to hide behind the door as soon as Leijon finished his speech," grinned the other girl. "Millicent Bulstrode. The huge theatre nerd is Pansy Parkinson."

Pansy scowled in a way that reminded Rose of Draco. "It's not theater," she said. "It's politics. Slytherin is meant to be about word games and cleverness!"

"Slytherin is a place to sleep," said the only girl in the room yet to introduce herself. "If it happens to be the singular House most Greengrass children are sorted into, it's only an affirmation of family being important to us, nothing political." The girl looked directly at Rose. "Oh, and I'm Daphne, though the only person here I don't already know is you, Rose Potter."

"Isn't family loyalty being important a sign of Hufflepuff?" asked Rose, thinking of Hermione.

"Wouldn't you say that it's ambitious to try and keep a family together?" replied Daphne.

Rose had no answer.

"Well," said Pansy. "I can sense that this room will be a wonderful source of drama that I will attempt to catalogue in my acting journal for the next seven years."

"You keep an acting journal?" That was Tracey.

"She keeps an acting journal," said Millicent. "It's hilarious. I've only gotten a few glimpses over the years, but one page involved her talking about the time when-"

"That's quite enough, Millie!" shrieked Pansy.

The air became suddenly tense.

Daphne tried to suppress it, but she ended up letting out a tiny snort of laughter. Tracey didn't even try to hide it, once she saw Daphne break. Rose was laughing, too, covering her mouth but giggling all the same. Then finally Pansy smiled, and Millicent patted her on the back and laughed heartily, and finally the whole room was filled with laughter, and minutes later, once the last shuddering breath was taken and the last tear was wiped away, Tracey sighed contentedly.

"This is going to be an incredible year," she said.

Night passed, and turned into day. Rose got up, checked her phone (nothing on it, really, considering the World Wide Web was more split between the for-now-Government-And-Research-Facility-Exclusive Wide Web and Skaianet, and barely anyone used the latter. Some habits were just nearly impossible to break), washed her face, when she noticed someone else in the bathroom, doing her makeup.

Pansy had actually stopped, the applicator in her hand still in mid-air, but her eyes were now solely locked into Rose's forehead.

"That's the scar, isn't it?" marveled Pansy.

"Ugh," groaned Rose. "It's too early for this shit."

"But it is, right?"

"Ugh," repeated Rose. "Yes, it's the scar. Wow. Amazing. I have other scars, too, you know."

"Really?" Pansy seemed enchanted with the possibility.

"Er," said Rose, suddenly flustered. "I got one on my right thumb when I tried cooking bacon for my aunt at age four. It didn't work out great for me."

"Really?" Pansy gasped. "You couldn't use any burn-healing paste?"

"No? Does that exist?"

"Yes," said Pansy. "Oh, Rose. That's so tragic!"

If Rose was more awake, she might have heard the mental alarm bells going off, but instead she said, "Well, they did what they could, under the circumstances. I'd probably be blaming whoever left me with such a dysfunctional group of people in the first place."

"Oh," said Pansy, and it almost looked to Rose like her heart was breaking, "you don't even know who left you there?"

"I have literally no clue," said Rose, who was done with the conversation.

"Dumbledore left you there," said Pansy.

"What?"

"He left you alone with those Muggles, those Muggles too backwards to know how to make a stupid burn-healing paste..." Now Pansy was sniffling. "How tragic. That's so tragic. I can't state how tragic that is, Rose."

"I mean, I thought I had an alright childhood-"

"Rose," said Pansy, slowly. "When you said you had other scars I thought you meant from Him."

"Nice capital letter," said Rose. "Really adds to the drama."

"I try," said Pansy. "Wait, no, I was monologuing! Don't do that!" Any air of tense sadness was entirely gone from her face, and now she instead looked only mildly irritated.

Milicent groaned her way into the bathroom.

"Kill me," said Milicent. "It's seven in the morning and you woke me up by monologuing."

"Well, that's on you for waking up!" said Pansy.

"My bed is the one closest to the bathroom door. I don't really have a choice. This happened before, Pan, and I complained about it before."

"I," said Pansy, "have a creative brain. And my creative brain works best early in the morning."

"Woe, that we are all not so blessed," said Rose. "Please keep the dramatic monologues to times when I am better able to come up with quips to respond to them."

"Sometimes I don't want people to quip while I talk about the tragedy of their own lives!"

"Don't I know it," said Rose. "After a while you realize the necessity of knowing how to quip back. Shuts them right down."

Pansy's eyes were wide.

"Teach me," she whispered.

"After breakfast," said Rose. "I need to make sure Ron and Malfoy didn't strangle each other last night."

And so, her morning routine (mostly) done, Rose left the other two girls to bicker, and wandered back into the Slytherin common room.

Malfoy and Ron were hunched over a chess game.

Rose walked over, and could hear Malfoy ask "Why did you do that?" Ron raised his eyebrows and tried to look away. Malfoy shook his head. "Rook to H4."

The tiny pieces, which looked to Rose like a fairly standard set (and Rose, who had dealt with a lot of life-sized chess people, knew what chess looked like) began to all move. The Rook shook itself before moving across the board.

"Bishop to C6," said Ron.

"Not to interrupt," said Rose, "but are we heading to breakfast anytime soon?"

"We're busy, Potter," drawled Malfoy.

"Yeah," said Goyle.

"Shit," said Rose, jumping a little. "I forgot you were there entirely."

Goyle frowned.

"I'm going to head to breakfast on my own, then," said Rose. "See you."

"Don't forget to look at the password if you haven't yet," said Malfoy.

Rose went to check the password, then left the Common Room, the bricks folding in behind her. She passed the Potions room on the way, catching a brief glimpse of a cloaked man with pitch black hair rearranging his cabinets. That was likely the Potions Master that Leijon (Rose really should have asked him if he'd ever heard of anyone named Nepeta) had mentioned the prior night.

Finally, she climbed the stairs, and emerged into the main hallway, before turning in and entering the Great Hall.

In the morning, with light softly streaming in from the windows and the ceiling, Rose was finally able to truly appreciate the beauty of the room. In certain ways, it did remind her of the distinctly gothic architecture of Derse, but far less haphazard. (And far less purple.) The details carefully etched into the walls of the Great Hall, repeated and remixed as the walls climbed higher and higher, were also just subtle enough to not be either a distraction or, in some of the most offensive examples of Derse architecture, a tripping hazard.

She caught Dave and Hermione sitting at the mostly empty Hufflepuff table. Rose sat down across from them.

"Hey," said Rose.

"Mrgle," replied Dave.

"There, there," said Hermione reassuringly. "Sorry, Ms. Pott- I mean, Rose. He's not exactly a morning person."

"I totally am," said Dave. "By, like, noon. That counts as morning."

"Do they not have coffee here?" asked Rose.

"Ugh," said Dave. "Only for teachers. Sucks major horse ass."

"Really?" asked Rose. "What was their logic?"

Dave's head hit the table. Without looking up, he held up two fingers in each hand to form faux-quotation marks in the air. "'Eleven year olds should not consume caffeine in such high quantities.' Bullshit, honestly."

"They do offer tea," said Hermione.

"Fuck tea, I'm an American," said Dave. "We're supposed to, like. Have solidarity against tea, or something. I didn't take history."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Do you know, Rose, that we constantly get asked why he sounds like he's from Texas?"

"I am from Texas!" said Dave.

"Dave spent most of his childhood finding any and all media with Texans in it, solely so that he could study the accent. I mean, honestly."

"Listen," said Dave. "Listen. Do you know how hard it is, to, like, retain a consistent accent when you live in a totally different country on your second go-around? You gotta fight back against that shit!"

"I gave in," said Rose. "The British accent makes me sound more sophisticated, I think. Ah, if only John could see me now."

"If John could see you now he'd probably make some stupid fucking comment about James Bond, or something. I dunno."

"From the fact that you mentioned openly that this is your second go-around, am I to assume that the other Granger is 'in the know,' so to speak?"

Dave made a vague noise. "She doesn't believe me all that much."

"I believe something is going on," said Hermione. "Just... the whole." She gestured in the air. "Time travel reincarnation thing. I don't know how much of it I can believe."

"It's all true," said Rose. "And as a rule of thumb, the dumber the event in question, the more likely it is to be true. Did you tell her about the time you scammed a bunch of lizards with time travel?"

"No," said Dave.

"I don't even see why you wouldn't have. It was one of the least stupid things that happened because there was a clear financial benefit to it."

"Because then I would have had to talk about the trolls, and 'Mione's barely grasped the internet by itself so far."

"Ah," said Rose. She grabbed an English Muffin from a platter. "You're aware that the internet has been invented already, yes? Just heavily restricted for the next few years?"

"Not really interested," said Dave.

"Oh, what, you're waiting on the server infrastructure to reupload a redrawn Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff?"

"First of all, that's genius, and I'm taking that idea, and second of all, eh." Dave shrugged. "What do I need it for, anyway? I really only spent most of my time just talking and making music, and you don't need the internet to make music. Now I have both my sisters from both lives here, so who else would I want to talk to?"

"Aww," said Hermione. "Dave." She smiled.

"What's your first class?"

"Not sure," said Dave. "'Mione?"

"The Hufflepuffs have Herbology first today," she said. "We've got about an hour to get down to the greenhouses."

"As far as I'm aware that's not a class I share with you," said Rose. "Slytherin has transfiguration first."

Another Hufflepuff sat down next to Rose. She looked at Rose. "Are the muffins any good?" she asked.

"They're alright," said Rose. "But it's also possible that I've not woken up yet."

"Thanks," said the girl, who took a plate. Then, before she reached for the muffin, she looked back at Rose, scrutinizingly.

"You weren't in the common room last night, were you?" she asked.

"No," said Rose.

"Oh!" said the girl. "So then you missed introductions. I'm Hannah," she said, holding out a hand. Rose took it. "Looks like you already know Dave and Hermione."

"We met on the train," said Rose.

"Oh, that's wonderful! Anyway, welcome to Hufflepuff!"

Rose was silent.

"I'm from Slytherin," she said.

"Huh?"

"I'm not in Hufflepuff," repeated Rose. "Is there a rule about not sitting at certain tables that I'm unaware of?"

"No," said Hermione.

"There isn't?" asked Hannah. "Last night it was only Hufflepuff people at this table."

Hermione shrugged. "It was a ceremony. Maybe there is a rule about it that I missed, although I doubt that I missed any rules, but we'll see as more people come in."

More people trudged into the dining room. Ron swaggered in and sat down next to Rose.

"Guess who just kicked Malfoy's sorry arse at chess," said Ron.

"Blaise Zabini?" asked Dave.

"No," said Ron. "Do you know Blaise?"

"The man was the last one to get sorted. Iunno. I remember random things sometimes."

"He's my roommate," said Ron. "Well, him, Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy. Who I just demolished in chess."

"Congratulations on beating an eleven year old at a board game," said Rose.

Ron frowned. "I'm eleven too."

"I know," said Rose. "Muffin?"

Malfoy joined their little gathering a minute later.

"That was a cruel trick, Weasley," he said. "With the queens and kings."

"I learned it from my brothers," said Ron. "If I don't fight back with my own tricks, they end up spelling all of the pieces to explode on victory or something. Happened more than once."

"So you just... carry false piece toppers around?" Malfoy looked horrified.

"I played by the rules," shrugged Ron. "The queen and king both moved entirely as kings and queens can until the reveal. It was just luck that the set in the Common Room is the same one they sell at Flourish and Blotts."

"Luck," repeated Malfoy. "What if it wasn't the same set?"

"I would have beaten you anyway," grinned Ron.

"Holy shit, I like this guy," said Dave. "We met on the train, right?"

"I think so," said Ron. "Dave Granger?"

"The one and only," said Dave. "And I did look that up."

"Sometimes," said Hermione to Rose, "Dave likes to make fun of me when I get excited about a new book I find, or some other discovery. You have no idea how annoying he was once he found out he was the only person to be named Dave Granger going back through our entire recorded lineage."

"I wouldn't have an idea," grinned Rose, "because he's the one and only Dave Granger. I have no frame of reference."

Hermione groaned.

Hannah took in the scene, green ties and yellow ties in equal numbers, and shrugged. "Guess I was wrong about the table thing," she said, and took a muffin.